Habiba Abubakar, mother of Abdulsamad Jamiu, the National Youth Service Corps member killed in Dei-Dei, Abuja, has narrated how she received the news of her son’s death, describing a distressing sequence of events marked by confusion and fear.
Speaking in an interview with TheCable on Monday, Abubakar said she was away with her husband for a burial ceremony when a neighbour alerted her to gunshots in their area in the early hours of the day.
“I travelled on Thursday, hoping to come back on Saturday to meet my son at home. Only for me to receive a call from my next neighbour around 2:30. ‘I said hello. Hope there is no problem?’ She said she’s hearing gunshots. Fear gripped me,” she recounted.
She said repeated attempts to reach her children were unsuccessful, as her first son’s line was switched off while her daughter’s phone was engaged.
When she eventually contacted her husband, she said he initially withheld details of the incident.
“Initially, he didn’t want to tell me the actual truth.
He said, ‘Soldier carried Abdulsamad.’ I said, soldier, Abdulsamad? How, for what? He said, no, they want to go and interrogate him,” she said.
Abubakar added that her phone was taken from her during the moment of distress, and when she requested it, family members claimed they could not find it.
“That was when I knew that my son was not alive again,” she said.
According to her, she continued to press her daughter, Farida, for clarity but was repeatedly asked to remain calm due to concerns about her health.
“I’m getting to Abuja, only for me to discover that my son was dead,” she said.
Recounting what she was later told about the incident, Abubakar alleged that soldiers gained access to the compound by scaling the fence rather than using the gate, moved through the back entrance, and went directly to her son’s room.
“They shot him through the door. They shot the door two times,” she claimed.
She further alleged that after the shooting, soldiers instructed local vigilante members to clean the scene, reportedly retrieving cleaning materials from her kitchen.
“They entered my kitchen, took Klin, from there, took a bucket and gave the vigilante to mop the blood. What happened? Why would they do that?” She queried.
Visibly emotional, Abubakar insisted that her son was inside his room at the time of the incident.
“Who did he offend? I want to know. Who did you offend?” She asked repeatedly.
Jamiu, 24, was killed in the early hours of April 25 at his family residence in Dei-Dei Shagari Quarters while his parents were away. His sister was reportedly in the house at the time.
The Nigerian Army, through the Headquarters Guards Brigade, had earlier stated that Jamiu died after being caught in crossfire when troops responded to a distress call over an armed robbery incident.
Brigade spokesperson, Olawuyi Odunola said soldiers came under fire from fleeing suspects and that the fatality occurred during the exchange.
However, the family has rejected the military’s account, describing it as inaccurate and misleading.
In a statement issued on Monday, the family argued that the trajectory of the bullet indicated it was fired from outside the room through a closed door, which they said does not align with a crossfire scenario.
They added that no weapons were recovered from the scene and that witnesses reported hearing only a single gunshot.
The family also alleged that soldiers at the scene admitted, in the presence of a Divisional Police Officer, that the shooting was a mistake.
Among its demands, the family called for an independent investigation, the suspension and prosecution of those involved, a retraction of the military’s statement, and a formal apology.
“The Nigerian Military operates under a constitutional mandate to protect Nigerian citizens. On the night of 25th April 2026, that mandate was catastrophically and fatally violated,” the family stated.
